Typically, email may be delivered through a client application or web-based application that includes a graphical user interface for displaying information about a user's email account, such as an inbox. The display for the inbox may update dynamically, so that a newly arriving email message appears at the top of a list of email messages in the display of the user's email inbox, even in the absence of a user input for a display refresh or other prompting. The email application or the operating system may also respond to the arrival of a new email message by generating a new text box, icon, or other form of notification in a display on top of or adjacent to a different application window, even when the main user interface window for the email application is minimized, behind another user interface window, or otherwise not being shown on the display.